Three Generations
by CheerLachlan
Summary: You've read Harry Potter time travel stories: Harry meets his parents; The new generation meets Harry... But have you read one that includes the Marauders, Harry AND The new generation? This exciting story is one-of-a kind. Please Review!
1. Notes and Messages

**Lily's Potters POV**

I was in a dilemma.

I could either hex the kid and be done with it, or I could walk away. If I hexed him, there would be detention, points deducted from Gryffindor and not to mention my Mothers wrath. But if I walked away… my reputation as the feisty, I-can-look-after-myself girl was at stake.

_Hmm__. What to do, what to do… _

My wand hand twitched.

I was saved by the bell. _How __irritatingly cliché__, _I thought.

I soothed my need for revenge by throwing the idiot a scathing look. I picked up my bag, swung my long, red hair over my shoulder, and stalked to charms class.

I was sure I hated that kid.

And why did I hate the poor, innocent, first-year boy?

Well, he may've been poor, but he certainly wasn't innocent. He was a nasty Crow. Crow with a capital "C" because it was they're last name: The clan of Crows.

They reminded me of the Pye's from "Anne of Green Gables"- a muggle book my cousin, Rose, had forced me to read.

Marian Crow had been spreading malicious lies about my family, and I wasn't the kind of person that let anyone get away with that.

"Lily Potter?" a shy, Hufflepuff girl asked.

"Huh? I mean, yes?" I asked, her voice startling me.

"I'm supposed to give this to you." She handed me a slip of rolled-up parchment.

"Thanks."

I opened the page to see narrow handwriting that looked vaguely familiar. It said simply:

_Miss Lily Potter, _

_Your presence is required at the Headmasters office immediately. _

_The Headmaster_

_What on earth is this about?_

I passed the charms classroom went directly to the Headmasters office.

My brothers were waiting there.

"So you got a note too, Lily," James remarked.

"Yes."

"Should we go in then?" asked Al.

"Have you been waiting for me?" I queried, looking from one brother to the other.

"Yeah, our notes said to go in all together."

"All right then."

James gave the password.

The stone gargoyle's let us in. Al knocked on the door and it swung open.

I saw an orange flash of light. Everything went dark and the air was knocked out of me.

* * *

**Lily Evans POV**

_Oh, yippee! __A trip to the Headmasters office… with Potter. Just Great. _

Those were my sarcastic thoughts as I dragged my unwilling feet down the halls with none other than James Potter. This was one of those times where I wished I was somewhere else- Anywhere else. I would even take a Professor Binns lecture over this.

"What's the matter, Evans? You look like you've just seen … something gross."

I rolled my eyes.

"Look- Being called out of class to walk to the Headmasters office with _you_ is not exactly my ideal way to spend the afternoon."

"Maybe if you went out with me, you'd get used to spending time with me, and it wouldn't be such a bother."

He stopped and looked into my eyes.

"Lily; you can't avoid the inevitable".

My eyes widened in surprise at his use of the word "inevitable".

"Inevitable? What's inevitable?"

"Me."

I raised an eyebrow.

He faced the gargoyles and said, "Blodwyn Bludd."

Neither James nor I said anything as we climbed the stairs.

I knocked on the door and it swung open immediately. _That's strange._

There was a flash of purple light and then darkness. I fell with a _thump_ to the floor of Dumbledore's office.

**Ginny's POV**

"Hellebore is so strong, that…" I let Professor Sprout's chipper voice become background.

I had broken up with Dean Thomas, and I felt an amazing sense of liberation. He was behind me.

_But Harry's ahead__- If I can get him to pay any attention to me. He still thinks of me as Ron's little sister. _

I sighed.

I was lying to myself, though. I knew Harry was starting to like me. But I didn't know why I was so hesitant to actually _believe_ it. Maybe I wasn't ready for him to like me. Maybe I thought it was too good to be true.

That was it. I _did_ think it was too good to be true-- my eleven-year-old dream finally becoming reality.

I wished life was simple: that everything was set out ahead of me so that all I had to do was walk forward and I would be carried to where I was meant to be. That would be so much easier than real life -- this complicated journey that had me so confused.

I sighed again.

"Miss Weasley?" called Professor Sprout.

"Err, yes Professor?"

"Come up here, please."

I groaned. Herbology was_ not_ my favorite subject, and I hated being used as a demonstration.

"Ginny," Professor Sprout whispered when I reached her.

"Yes?" I whispered back, though I didn't know why we were whispering.

"The headmaster needs you in his office."

I nodded.

"He wants you _now_, please."

"All right," I said slowly.

I got my things, and then left the greenhouse.

I met Harry on my way. My stomach fluttered as I took in his adorable appearance.

"Hey, Ginny."

"Hi, Harry! Where're you off to?"

"Dumbledore's office. What about you?"

"I'm going to see Dumbledore, too…" My voice trailed off.

"What is it?"

"Oh, nothing. I just think it's funny that we should get called to Dumbledore's office- at the same time. For me it was, well, for no reason, really."_ I wonder if that sounded as idiotic to him as it did to me. Hmm. _

"Oh."

_Why is this __**awkward**__?!_ _It shouldn't be awkward. It's never been awkward between us before!_ _Why can't I think of anything interesting to say?_ _Why?!_

We continued walking in silence.

When we got there I realized I didn't know one vital thing.

"Harry, do you know the password?"

"Yeah, it's uh- I'm an imp."

"Only Dumbledore would have a password like that," I laughed.

Harry chuckled.

We climbed the spiral staircase. Harry opened the door, and he stopped breathing.

"Harry, what is it?"

He just shook his head weakly and kept staring into the office.

I gently pushed him aside, and gasped at the sight of Harry's 16-year-old parents.


	2. In the Office

**Lily Potters POV**

"Ooph!" my brothers and I huffed as we hit the floor.

"Ow!" I moaned-- James' weight was killing me. I could only imagine what Al was going through, trapped under both of us. "Get off!"

James got up and then I did, and poor Al was able to breathe again.

"Thanks." He puffed.

"What the heck just happened?" asked James.

_What the heck _did_ just happen?_

"I've got no idea," replied Al.

I felt fine, maybe a little dizzy from the fall. I looked around the Office- it appeared no different, Except for a few silver instruments that were puffing and whirring. I wondered if they were the reason we were called there.

"Hello- can I help you?" said Professor Dippet's Portrait.

We all jumped at his sudden voice. I decided to ask him about the orange light.

"Err… Professor Dippet," I said tentatively, "Do you know what happened just then?"

"What do you mean? Are you foreign? Don't you know the customs of English wizards? -- Oh! You're the young students Dumbledore…" he kept talking but I didn't hear.

Dumbledore- His portrait wasn't on the wall.

I spun around to face my brothers.

"No, of course we're not from Czechoslovakia!" James shouted in response to professor Dippet's ramblings, oblivious to my distress.

I looked at Albus, who was usually more reliable when it came to serious matters. "Al," I whispered hoarsely, "Professor Dumbledore's portrait isn't on the wall." He gasped as he realized what this meant.

"So… he hasn't died yet…"

"No: We've gone back in time! That's what the orange light was about!" I exclaimed. It was all very obvious when I thought about it.

"What d'you mean?"

"You saw the light, didn't you?" Al nodded.

"Last week, Rose was lecturing about this new ministry tool—time portals. They use them to investigate criminal's lives, and when anyone goes back in time they see an orange light!"

"How did this happen?!"

"I don't know!" I sighed in frustration. "Where is Rose when you actually _need_ her?"

"Okay. We need a plan." He had his brow furrowed in concentration, looking determined.

I laughed once in spite of myself- he was acting exactly like dad. Al gave me a sour look.

"What's going on?" James asked, finally ending his argument with Professor Dippet.

"How slow are you, James?" said Al, "We've gone back in time!"

"Back in time…? Whoa. Are you sure?" He didn't wait for an answer. "How far back d'you think we've gone?"

"Before Dumbledore died, but after Dippet did."

I realized that this could be our parents' time- or our Grandparents'.

"Can you imagine Grandma as a teenager?" _I_ couldn't.

"Hardly. What about Granddad?"

"What about Lily and James?" Al asked.

I thought about that for a minute- seeing the grandparents I had only heard about… _meeting_ them

"Wow: that would be amazing." I said.

"Imagine Mum and Dad our age!" laughed James.

"Weird."

"Okay, but we need to find a way to get back." I said. I really didn't want to get stuck in a time before I was born. "We need to speak to... Dumbledore."

James nodded and Al said,

"Okay. Um... but how do we speak to him?"

"Yeah Lily, this is _his_ office."

"I don't know. We need to search the castle and find him. From what I've heard… he's the man we're looking for."

"All right then. And, you're sure we've gone _back_ in time Lily?" asked Al.

"Very sure."

"No one will recognize us then."

"Let's go." I was nervous and excited- what if I saw my parents?

_I wonder if I look as much like mum as everyone says I do, I_ couldn't help but think.

Just then, two teenagers— a redhead girl and a black-haired boy – came tumbling through the door.

**Lily Evans' POV**

I groaned. I'd never realized before how hard the floor was.

"Are you okay, Lily?" James asked.

"Fine," I replied stiffly.

I stood up to see three teenagers that were gaping at us like we had extra heads.

"Uh, hello?" I said mainly to rouse them. Their gob- struck faces were starting to scare me.

"Can you stop looking at us like we're mutant goblins?" said James.

They ignored us and huddled together, whispering.

"What's their problem?" James muttered.

I looked at myself, trying to see if the light had made me look weird… or maybe turned me purple. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

I looked around the office. Everything looked normal there, too.

"Is it just me, or does that kid look like… my twin?" James whispered, pointing to the taller boy.

I could only see his profile, but I was amazed at how much like James the boy looked- the straight nose, the firm jaw, the bottom lip that jutted out just a tiny bit, and the extremely messy black hair.

And then I gasped. I was horrified that I knew James' face so well.

"That's just weird, isn't it?"

"Yeah…" I said vaguely.

I studied the teenagers. There were two boys; the taller one with messy black hair and a shorter one with dark brown hair and glasses. They looked about sixteen. The girl had dark red hair and freckles; she 

looked about fourteen of fifteen. I guessed they were siblings by the way they were acting and how alike they looked.

_I wonder if these people are why we were called to the office. Maybe they need a tour or something._

And then I wondered where on earth Dumbledore was.

The black haired boy turned and looked at me. I felt like I was gazing into a mirror- his eyes were _exactly_ the same as mine; almond shaped and vivid green. I don't know how long we stared at each other, but it felt like ages before he looked away.

"Who _are_ they?" I thought out loud.

"No one that I know, unless Hogwarts takes exchange students… _does_ Hogwarts take exchange students?"

"Not that I know of. Maybe this is something new, and Dumbledore wants to introduce them to the prefects first?—Where _is_ Dumbledore? Isn't he supposed to meet with us?"

"Yeah. Or maybe this is some kind of Dumbledore-esque test?"

"I don't think so."

The girl turned around and looked at us as if she were about to give a speech.

"Err… sorry about that earlier." She sounded really nervous. "We didn't mean to be so rude. Umm-"

Potter interrupted her with, "What's your name?"

"L- err-- Paul Lawrence and Dunbar. I mean, those are mine and my brothers' names." She was speaking really fast.

"Paul, Lawrence and Dunbar?" I heard the brown- haired brother hiss.

"Oh- I'm sorry. It's impolite to… err, well, err… I'm L- Pauline- Paul for short. And those are my brothers- Larry and… Barry..." She looked down and started breathing rapidly.

"This is so _weird_!" she whispered to her brothers.

"What's weird?" I asked.

The harassed- looking girl jumped at my voice.

"Oh, nothing!" she squeaked. Her blacked haired brother took pity in her and started speaking to us instead.

"We were just wondering if anything … strange happened to you when you walked through the door. Any light…?"

"Yeah," We answered at the same time.

"Purple light," James added.

'Pauline' nodded when he said this.

"Okay- we think _we_'ve gone _back_ in time…"

"Really? How far back? Where're you from?" Potter asked excitedly.

"We're from the year two thousand and twenty three."

I gaped. 'Two thousand and twenty three'? That was more than forty years in the future! I could hardly comprehend it, yet I couldn't help but believe it. There was something about them….

"And," 'Larry' continued, "We think _you_'ve gone forward in time."

"So… that's what the purple light was-- us travelling through time?" I asked.

"We think so. In our time, the ministry developed something called 'Time Portals'. Dumbledore's office door must've been turned into a time portal."

"What are we going to do?"

"We're going to try and get back."

"_I_'m gonna try to see Mum and Dad."

"No J- Barry! You are _so_ not!"

"Aw, come on – it can't hurt!"

"Your parents are from this time?" Potter asked.

"Somewhere around this time. It'd be awesome if I could talk them; Imean, they wouldn't even know who I am."

"J.S.P!" 'Pauline' hissed, "You have no idea how much I want to do that too, but we have to get back!"

"You're acting like Rose, _Pauline_. Lighten up a bit!"

"No, Pauline's right, we should try not to be seen, meddling with time is dangerous." I said.

"Yeah, Listen to her, James. She _is_ your senior."

The door opened again.

**Ginny's POV**

I couldn't believe my eyes. I had only seen a couple of pictures of Harry's Parents, but I knew that here, as real as life, they were standing. And they were teenagers. The sound of Harry's too- fast breathing shook me out of my shocked trance. I tried to calm him down.

"It's okay, Harry. Shh, it's okay, calm down. It's only…" _It's only what? A hallucination, your imagination? _

I didn't know.

_Unless they're not actually his parents. So- what are they? Polyjuiced impersonators? Freakishly alike distant relatives that no one knows about?_

"My… Parents," Harry whispered hoarsely.

"Are they really, Harry?" I asked.

My voice seemed to bring him back to reality, and he nodded.

I heard a yell from behind Lily and James, and moved my head to see who it was. Two boys and a girl were standing behind them, looking shocked, harried and bewildered.What amazed me was the girl-- she looked _just _like me.

No one was saying anything, which became really awkward, so I tried to break the ice.

"Uh, hi. I'm Ginny. Dumbledore wanted us to come here. Is there anything I can… help you with?"

"If you know how to time- travel: that would be helpful." Said James.

"Err, time- travel?"

"Yeah I think we're from the past."

I didn't exactly know what to tell them, and Harry wasn't being helpful. I decided to play ignorant so I could find out as much as I could about them.

"Oh! So what is your name? Are you from… Oh- stuff it! I know who you two are – Lily and James. I'm Ginny Weasley, and this is Harry--"

_Oh, shoot! What am I supposed to tell them? _

_Nothing-- About Harry, anyway._

"Harry."

"So, Ginny, you're from this time, right?" James asked.

"Yeah."

"And what time is this, exactly?"

"It's the fifteenth of March, Nineteen ninety seven." I informed them.

"Whoa-- That's twenty years in the future!"

"Amazing, isn't it? You know what; I'm going to Dumbledore to see if he can help sort this out. I don't think you want to be stuck here for very long. But, wait—how did you get here?"

Lily answered, "A time Portal. It's something from their time." She pointed to the three mute teenagers.

"Who are they?" I whispered.

"I don't know, she said they are 'Paul, Lawrence and Dunbar' but I don't think they're their real names."

I looked at the three again. They really looked like they were related to me.

I turned to them.

"Hi. I'm not sure if you heard, but, I'm Ginny. Where are you from?"

"Two thousand and twenty three." Said the girl called Pauline.

"You don't happen to be related to me, do you?"

"Yes," said the one with glasses, while the black haired boy said, "No," and the red head said, "Distantly."

I laughed, trying to lighten the tense mood.

"Which is it?"

They looked at each other for a moment.

Pauline answered, "Since we're from the future, we don't want to tell you much. Let's keep it at that."

"Okay…"

I went back to Harry to see if he was having any progress.

He still had wide eyes, but he looked somewhat composed.

_Time for action._

"Harry, we've got to find Dumbledore; these people need to get back to where they came from."

I looked at the five lost teenagers.

"I'll help you out, and you can come. But you'll need to be disguised, Lily and James."

They turned their hair a dark blonde, which I thought looked really weird.

"I don't think anyone will recognize you now. Let's go."

I heard the door open and then a _thump._

I turned around; expecting to see Dumbledore on the floor, but it wasn't him. It was a teenage girl who looked very much like a redheaded, blue- eyed Hermione.


	3. Finding out

**UPDATE Aug -15- 08- Chapter three BETA- I hope you like it!**

**Thank you so much for your Great Reviews! They are the thing that keeps me going! **

**If anyone is OOC in this chapter, I apologise, this was a hard one to write. Enjoy!**

**Lily Potters POV**

_Rose! We're saved!_

Relief, soaring relief, was what I felt as I saw my cousin topple into the room. She stood up and glanced around the room, narrowing her eyes after a while.

"Rose?" I whispered.

She came over to me with her usual determined-and-concentrated look on her face.

"Um, Lily… what in the world is going on?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"Well actually, I was hoping you could tell us that."

Rose rolled her eyes. "James, Al: go back, and talk to the others as if… um, well, as if everything is normal. Lily: follow me."

I followed Rose to the side and leaned in to hear the whispered lecture I knew I was about to hear.

"What did you tell them?" Rose sighed.

"That we're from the future and that our names are Paul, Lawrence and Dunbar," I said sheepishly.

"Honestly, Lily. Look- there is no point in lying to them. Firstly, because you're a terrible liar-"

"Hey!" I said indignantly.

"-Under lots of pressure. Secondly, lying leads to questions, questions lead to more lies, and that leads to utter confusion for everyone. We can't have confusion. We have to get back to our time ASAP. Understand?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said. She rolled her eyes again. I was quite proud of her; she was handling the stress very well.

"Do you have any sort of plan?"

"We were going to try and find Dumbledore."

She nodded, and looked over my shoulder at the older Lily and James, who had changed their hair respectively to red and black.

"Lily," Rose whispered, "Talk to Harry, and get him to tell them that he's their son."

"What? Are you mad? I can't let Dad do that!"

I glanced at my young Dad. I wasn't going to let him tell his parents that! But of course, someone had to tell them, and he really was the best person, he wouldn't want it to be anyone but him…

I sighed. "Fine, you're right."

"Harry?"

He looked round at me.

"Um … I know, well… I think… no, you _need_ to tell your parents who you are. Don't go into details; just tell them that you're their son."

He looked confused for a moment, and then he said, "Wait how do you know-"

"I just know. Look, I'll explain in a minute, can you just tell them first?"

"How am I meant t-?"

"Slowly. And kind of… make it sound like they're alive."

"Okay…" he said slowly, turning to look at his parents.

Lily and James were standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, and each was looking away from the other.

"I can't… I can't tell them that! They'll-"

"Don't worry about it, just act casual. They'll be fine." I really wasn't sure whether they'd be fine or not, but I was just following orders… sometimes I was pathetic.

Dad sighed.

"All right, I'll do it," he said with finality.

He walked over to his parents, where he said, "James, Lily?" and both their heads snapped up. Everyone turned their attention to him, in fact.

"Erm… I need to tell you something…" He looked at the floor and scratched the back of his head.

"What is it?" asked Lily quietly.

"You," he took another breath. "Umapants," he mumbled.

"We're your… pants?" said James with a hilariously confused look on his face.

"What?" Lily asked sharply.

"You- are- my-par-ents."

They stared at him for so long that I started to count. Neither of them moved for two and a half minutes. Then James grinned hugely.

"So… we get married then?"

Dad nodded.

"See, Lily? I told you we were meant to be together after all."

"No," she said, so menacingly that James jumped. Lily looked down and shook her head. After a minute of that she shrieked, "What?!" at Harry.

"Erm, I know it sounds strange now, but it really will happen. You'll er, fall in love, get married and have me."

"I…I... give me a moment." She slid to the floor at stared at the ground.

"Okay, well then…" said Rose. She cleared her throat and looked at my parents. "I wish I didn't have to do this, but unfortunately, it's mandatory to our progress in this situation." She looked at James. "Do you want to do it?"

"Do what?"

Rose, Al and I rolled our eyes. James wasn't paying attention, as usual.

"Never mind. Al?"

"Okay… Erm… Er… Harry and Ginny? Erm, you…" Mum and Dad were staring at him, Dad looking confused and Mum looking concerned.

"What is it?" asked Mum when he didn't say anything. I noted that that was the same thing Lily had said to Harry. Al tried to look casual, erase the formal and nervous expression in his face.

"Er, well, you see… I'm, er well _we_… I mean, _you_ are um… You're our parents."

"What?" asked Mum and Dad quietly.

"You – Harry and Ginny – are the parents of James, Lily and me. Weird, I know, but it's true."

"We're you parents?" Mum whispered.

"Both of us?" murmured Dad.

"Yeah," Al said softly back.

"Whoa," Mum and Dad said together. They looked into each other's eyes, very lovey-dovey expressions on their faces, and didn't stop staring until James II cleared his throat.

"So, you mean…" started Mum awkwardly, trying to ease over the moment she was faintly embarrassed about.

"Really?" finished Dad.

"Really," said James, Al and I.

Mum and Dad contemplated this for a moment, and then each of them seemed to accept it. Grins appeared on each face and I knew then that they were head-over-heels for each other. I just hoped they wouldn't start kissing in front of us.

"Okay. Can you all see how this works?" Rose asked the room at large. "I'm sorry I don't know why. I'm sorry I don't know more. All I know is that it can be done; we can get back to where we came from."

"Thanks, Rose," I murmured.

"Oh, by the way, this is our cousin," said James to our parents.

"It's the fifteenth of March... has my Dad come out of the Hospital wing yet?" asked Rose abruptly.

"How did you know the date?" asked Al. "Who's your Dad?" asked Harry.

"I know the date because it's on Professor Dumbledore's desk. Harry, just guess who my parents are."

"Um... Hermione?"

She nodded.

"And... er..."

"Ron!" shouted Mum and Rose.

"They finally came to their senses then?" He said smilingly.

"Yes, in their seventh year."

"Excellent, I was getting worried."

"All right. When Lily is ready, we'll go out all together."

"You're a lot like Hermione, aren't you?" said Mum as Dad started talking to Al and James.

"Mm-hmm, or so they tell me," said Rose with pride. "Actually, every time we have family 'get together', Geo-" she stopped and looked for a cover-up. "Georgia points out how much like Mum I am."

What happened to 'Lying leads to Questions'?

And then it dawned on me; she couldn't mention George, because that would mean Fred. And how were we supposed to explain Fred's death to them?

"Who's Georgia?" asked Mum.

"She's Percy's oldest girl," improvised Rose, trying to change the subject.

It worked.

"Percy," Mum said darkly. "What's he like… in the future?"

"Gryffindor-ish: Loyal and very brave," I answered, remembering the time when Uncle Percy had saved me from a pack of evil, angry Chihuahuas.

"You're my daughter…" Mum said softly.

"Yeah, I am. That must be weird for you, mustn't it?"

She smiled and shook her head, not exactly answering my question. "You really look like me, although you kind of… don't look like me at all…"

"Oh!" I said. Duh. It was weird for me not having her know why I didn't exactly look like her. "I do look like you, but everyone says I have dad's expressions. See." I grinned and then frowned, and I felt my forehead wrinkled up the way Dad's did.

Mum's eyes were wide. "You do look like him," she observed, awe-struck.

"You look like me!" exclaimed Dad.

"I know. My facial expressions are my one tie to you. If it weren't for them, no one would believe I'm your daughter!"

Dad mouth twitched and then smiled, revealing an expression exactly like the one I was wearing. Mum smiled too, she liked the way the words "I'm you daughter" sounded.

"This is the weirdest thing that has ever happened to me, but I like it," I announced.

We all smiled around at each other. Being in the same room as my teenage parents was great. I felt light and happy and I wanted to laugh my head off for some reason, as well.

Rose was looking at her watch.

"We have to go. We're already six minutes behind schedule."

"Schedule?" asked James, looking apprehensive.

"Yes, James: schedule. Someone has to be organized."

"Lily," Rose said to my grandmother, touching her lightly on the shoulder, "Are you ready to go?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

She got to her feet and we left without anyone else tumbling through the door.


	4. A tale of two Lilly's

**Authors Note- Here's chapter four, Ladies and Gentlemen (I just felt like saying that, I don't know why). Thanks to every one who's read my stories, or added me to their favorite lists -- And a HUGE Thanks to all reviewers! You're the best! I apologize to anyone who didn't like chapter three, or thought it was... strange (I agree with you). I think this chapter is a lot better though. Have fun!**

**Lily Evans POV**

I followed them out, banishing my confused thoughts. I made myself pay attention to what was going on.

Halfway down the hall I bumped into James. Rose, who was leading the group, had stopped suddenly, creating a domino- like effect. She was pacing back and forth which prevented any of us from passing her.

"Why the hold up, Rose?" asked James, the brown haired boy.

"How could I have been so stupid?!" she ejaculated, glaring at the ceiling.

"Err, Rose?" said Lily.

"What?" She threw the word at her cousin and then sighed. "I wasn't paying attention – did anyone see any light or feel… anything when we walked through the door?"

"No."

She nodded absently and started pacing again, all the while mumbling to herself.

"I hate it when she does that," said Al.

We waited. Nothing was happening, and I was afraid my mind would slip into thinking the unwanted thoughts; the thoughts of James… and I.

_Stop it, Lily! _I told myself. I forced my attention back on Rose's pacing form.

"Seventy- one hours," she stated quietly.

"Seventy- one hours…?" questioned Al.

"We have seventy- one hours to get back to where we came from."

"Oh… well, that's good isn't it?"

"To a certain degree." She looked at us collectively. "Right – in order for this to work, I need information and - Lily, James! Why aren't you disguised?!"

"Um, we were but…"

"It just felt so weird to be blonde," I finished.

She came up to us, and pointed her wand directly at my face, looking grimly determined.

"What're you-" I started to complain.

"Just stay very still."

After a few swishes of her wand, she handed me a mirror. What I saw was a brunette bombshell.

"What did you do to me?" I asked, trying not to sound too pleased.

"A few minor adjustments, nothing major; I can still tell you're you.

"Your turn, James."

She turned his hair a light brown, and did some other things that I couldn't really place, but he looked different all the same.

_James... Stop it! _I reprimanded myself again.

"As I was saying; in order for my plan to work, we need-"

"Err, plan?" said James Jr.

"You know, James, as a cousin you're quite a disappointment. I would _hope_you have more faith in me then you let on. And please, don't interrupt. My plan is this– Ginny, Harry: find Dumbledore and McGonagall, please, and bring them to the Library. If it takes longer than… half an hour, come to the library anyway. The rest of us will go to the library to research the things that I need."

"What are the things you need?" asked Ginny.

"Ingredients to make a potion that will reopen the time portal on Dumbledore's office door."

"Potion? Wouldn't there be a charm or something?"

Rose shook her head. "No; to create a time portal, the fumes from a type of time potion are needed. I've also surmised that we have seventy one hours to make it – the time portal, that is."

"How did you figure that out?" asked James; my James.

_My James?! What is wrong with me? _

_Focus, Lily, Focus. _

"Don't answer that," said Albus hastily to Rose, who looked like she was just about to give a long lecture. She sighed.

"I need to make this potion soon so the time portal can still be reopened. Like I said, we only have seventy- one hours, and this is a rather complicated potion. Fortunately, I have my copy of _Ministry inventions of the twenty first century_ with me."

She nodded smartly.

"Are you willing to contribute, and follow my plan?" She looked at us with almost _accusing _eyes. I stifled a laugh.

"All right, off you hop then. That means you, Aun- Ginny, and Harry."

"Okay, see you in, um, half an hour," said Harry.

I watched for a prolonged moment as my son walked away.

"To the Library then," said Rose, spinning on her heel.

It was surreal; strolling down the halls of Hogwarts, in 1997, no less. Some people gave us strange looks, but no one talked to us because they were going to their next classes. We were able to avoid all adults until we reached the library, but that was fine. Madame Pince and Mr. Filch were absorbed in a deep conversation, something about whether or not students should be allowed to bring sugar quills into the library on Weekdays.

Our group of six snuck past them to an empty desk.

"We're going to have to split up," said Rose as she glanced at her watched anxiously. "I need Potions books, arithmancy books and herbology books," said Rose. "Can, Lily E. and Jame-" She stopped abruptly, looking at Lily, who seemed to be the reason Rose stopped.

"Lily and Lily, can you get the potions books?" she revised. We nodded.

"James the first and Al, Herbology books; and James the second and I will handle Arithmancy."

"What sort of Herbology books?" asked Al.

"Here," she said as she took a book from her bag. She tore two pages from it and handed them to Al.

"I really need books on how to juice and smoke these types of plants, rather than books about the plants specifically."

"We can do that," said Al, and they left.

"Why did you rip pages from a book?" asked James.

"Because, they needed a list of-"

"No I mean, why would you rip pages out of _any_ book? Isn't that sacrilegious?" he teased.

Rose raised her eyebrows coldly, but otherwise ignored him. I thought she looked embarrassed, though.

"In this book," she placed it on the table, "In chapter seventeen, you'll find potions that I need _extensive _information on; especially… fumificus antiquarius, and fumificus generalis posterus."

"Okay, but, How are we going to remember all that?" asked Lily.

"You won't need to; it's all In the chapter."

"All right, see you later Rose, James."

As soon as we were out of sight, I grabbed Lily's arm.

"Thank you," I said.

"For what?"

"For saving me from being alone with James; I don't think I'd be able to handle that right now."

She smiled. "No problem. I call it 'Redhead telepathy'." She then grew serious. "I know you need time to think. This is… this is mind boggling stuff."

"Mind boggling is right," I agreed.

"Come on, it's this way."

We sat at a desk in between two shelves. I opened the book to chapter seventeen.

_What did she say? Genralias posterus? No… _

I ran my finger down the page.

_Ah, here it is – fumificus antiquarius. That's one of them… Now the other one… _

"Hey Lily, what did she-" I looked up and she was staring at my face.

"What?" I asked.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Lily blurted.

"Talk about what?"

She raised one unbelieving eyebrow at me. "You know what," she said.

"Erm…" I deliberated for a moment. "Yes, I do want to talk about it."

"What exactly was your relationship with James; before today?"

That opened the floodgate.

"One sided! _I_ try to mind my own business. But all _he_ does is strut about like a prat, like he thinks he owns the place: Mussing up his hair; playing with stolen snitches; hexing anyone whenever he feels like it; an-and asking me out every bloody five seconds! I mean, who on earth does he think he is?!"

"A marauder?"

"Oh and that just makes everything all right, does it? Oh, everyone _else_ listens to the rules, but he- he- he…"

"He…?"

"I don't know _what_ to think of him," I conceded glumly. "At first he was just annoying, and I thought he would grow out of it, but he just gets worse and worse! He always seems to be right there, you know?"

Lily sighed.

"What're you going to do?"

"When we get back, you mean?"

She nodded.

"Act like nothing's happened."

"Why?" she probed.

"Because… I thought a lot about this when we were in Dumbledore's study. I've… accepted that things… are going to happen between us, and I don't want it to be awkward, or un_natural_."

"So you admit thing are going to happen," she said, with a hint of a smile.

"I- Lily, this conversation does not leave this…book shelf, understand?"

"Yes."

"I thought I hated James Potter. I really did. But now… I'm not sure. I was so annoyed at him for asking me out all the time and _so_ many other things, but I wondered why he did. Was it because he was attracted to me? Or did he actually like me? I guessed it was the first." I inhaled deeply. "D'you think he…" I didn't know what to say.

Lily came around the table and put her arm around me.

"You know what? I think he is a sixteen year old boy, but a sixteen year old boy who is very crazy about you. I've talked to my dad about this a lot. You know, why boys do the crazy things they do." She snorted. "I think James _really _likes you."

"But- but- but," I stuttered. What was wrong with me? I sighed in frustration. "Yeah I know that 'Boys are idiots around the girls they like' theory, but he's just a real-"

"Prat-ish, idiotic, annoying, git?"

"Exactly."

"So... _what are you going to do_?!"

"I'm going to do what I said; pretend nothing happened!"

"You should at least try to be friends with him."

"How can I be friends with someone I detest?!"

"Lily, how thick do you think my head is? I saw the way you look at him – you like him. _You like James_."

"No I don't!" I cried, my face flushing with all sorts of emotions. "Look, I just found out that I married Potter, have a son, have three grandchildren, and I only have seventy one hours to get back to nineteen seventy seven! Trying to befriend James will only make things harder. I just want things to stay the way they are… or, were."

I _really_ just didn't want to think about him anymore. I was afraid my head would explode with the strain.

"I'm not trying to make things harder; I'm trying to make them easier," she said quietly. "We'd better get started on this list, or we'll never get it done."

"You're right," I said.

"Fumificus antiquarius… That would be in the 'bonding/ blood' section…"

* * *

"So, are there any boys you like?" I asked. We were now sitting at a bigger desk, one that accommodated our colossal book load.

"Yeah, of course there are, but it's not like I can do anything about it." She turned a page.

"Tergeo," I murmured, before the book-dust could make her sneeze.

"Thanks." Her eyes scanned the page. "I'm not allowed to date until my fifth year." She blushed scarlet as she said this.

"You look guilty," I observed.

"Well- you- I-I've only dated three guys!" she confessed. "That's not really_ bad_, is it?"

"It _is_ if you're not allowed to date," I laughed.

"Humph," she huffed.

I laughed again at the look on her face. "Hey, is this the right kind of potion?" I asked.

"That's a good one, I'll write it down." Lily seemed very eager to change the subject.

Fifteen minutes later, we went to the Arithmancy section where Rose was waiting.

"Here, Rose. This is everything we could find," Lily said. We put our books and lists in front of her.

"Thanks." She looked through them. "Wow, this is excellent. This is everything I need, thank you."

Albus and James came and sat at the desk next to ours.

"Did we miss anything, Rose?" Al asked as he handed her a roll of parchment.

I looked at James then. He was paying close attention to Rose, and acted like I wasn't there.

"I don't think so. This is everything I need on lovage, though," she added approvingly.

"Good," James said, "It took us forever to find that book." He grinned, and I couldn't help but crack a smile.

_Lily Evans, Stop that! There is _no_ thinking about J- Potter! __**Potter, Potter, POTTER!**_

For goodness sake, why did I have to chide myself?

"Hey Rose, Uh…" said Ginny.

"Did you find them?" she asked.

"You see Rose, that's thing, we, uh…"

"We can't find them," Harry finished.

_He _really_ sounds like James. _

_Ugh! Shut up, bad thoughts!_

"Can't find them! What do you mean, 'can't find them'?"

"Apparently, Professor Dumbledore is away, and McGonagall isn't here."

"What're we going to do?" Rose wailed.

"Hermione's the one who's got the brains, why don't we-" suggested Harry.

"I can't have _Hermione _here," Rose hissed, "She's my mother."

"You asked what we're going to do, and Harry told you," said Ginny.

"I _guess_, given the circumstances…"

"Great! Let's go to Gryffindor tower, then. The sixth years have a free period now, don't they Harry?"

"Yeah, and it ends in forty five minutes." He looked at his watch.

"Okay… but you're doing the talking."

"Deal."

The group of us got out of the library easily (Madame Pince and Filch were still in _deep_ conversation).

On our way there, I noticed some of new paintings, and I got stuck in a new trick stair.

"This wasn't here when I was a kid," I said with a laugh.

When I said this Harry looked really sad.

I was about to ask him if he was all right, when I heard Rose scream.

A tall, gangly and extremely freckled redhead boy was coming towards us.

_Ah, this must be Ron._

Suddenly, both Rose and Ron screamed.

So quickly I almost didn't see it, Rose slipped her shoe off and whacked the hand rail.

_What the…_

She screamed again.

"It's on me, it's on me! Get it off, _get it off_!" She shrieked.

_It must be a spider or something. _

Lily sighed loudly and picked the offending spider off the banister and put it on the other side.

"Is it dead?" Rose squeaked, with her hands covering her face.

"No, but it's about three meters away from you already, Rose."

"Good," the poor girl said in a strained voice. "Just make sure it's gone."

"It's not coming back, Rose."

She removed her hands from her face.

"Harry, Ginny: who are these people?" Ron asked.

Ginny almost answered, but Rose's 'in- charge' nature seemed to overcome her, and she answered instead.

"I'm Rose Weasley."

**Some questions/ requests -- Firstly, Please review. Secondly, what did you think of just the one POV in this chapter? Thirdly, Do you like the direction the story's going? Fourthly, Any suggestions? **

**Okay, I think that's all. Thanks!**

**Leave a review!**


	5. How not to faint

**I'm sorry there's a little (482 word) repeat of the last chapter, I just thought it would be funny from Lily P's perspective, and plus, I need her to notice things... I hope you like it!**

**If the repeat bores you to tears, please LET ME KNOW! **

**May 27- I forgot to say Thanks to those who pointed out that I got the years wrong in chapter 4. It's all okay now, I fixed it. :)**

**Lily Potter's POV **

"Here, Rose. This is everything we could find," I said, placing my fifty thousand or so books on the table. (All right, it wasn't _really_ fifty thousand, but it felt like that many…)

"Thanks." She looked through them. "Wow, this is excellent. This is everything I need, thank you."

Albus and James Sr. came and sat at the desk next to ours. What was strange though, is that James didn't look at Lily once. I also noticed that when James smiled, Lily grinned immediately in response.

_How's that for role reversal?_

Mum and Dad came in then. _They _were holding hands, and looked as if they had been going together for years. It was cute, but I don't know why I thought it was really funny.

"Hey Rose, Uh…" said Mum.

"Did you find them?" Rose asked.

"You see Rose, that's thing, we, uh…"

"We can't find them," Harry finished.

"Can't find them! What do you mean, 'can't find them'?"

"Apparently, Professor Dumbledore is away, and McGonagall isn't here."

"What're we going to do?" Rose wailed.

"Hermione's the one who's got the brains, why don't we-" _Typical dad. _

"I can't have _Hermione _here," Rose hissed, "She's my mother."

"You asked what we're going to do, and Harry told you," said Ginny.

"I _guess_, given the circumstances…"

"Great! Let's go to Gryffindor tower, then. The sixth years have a free period now, don't they Harry?"

"Yeah, and it ends in forty five minutes." He looked at his watch.

"Okay… but you're doing the talking."

_Someone else do the talking? Yeah, right. And my mother is an iguana. _

"Deal."

As we started up the staircase, Uncle Ron appeared. My, but he was freckly! And he looked so _weird_ as a teenager.

I glanced at Rose to see her reaction, but I never saw it. On the hand rail was a tiny, or more like _microscopic_ spider. But, of course, Rose would notice it. She and Ron screamed.

Rose slipped her shoe off and whacked at the spider, and it jumped out of the way.

She screamed again.

"It's on me, it's on me! Get it off, _get it off_!" She shrieked.

This had happened often enough that I knew exactly what to do. I sighed, picked up the teeny arachnid and put it away.

"Is it dead?" Rose squeaked.

"No, but it's about three meters away from you already, Rose."

"Good," she squeaked, trying to sound normal. "Just make sure it's gone."

"It's not coming back, Rose." I had to reassure her of this every time. She removed her hands from her face.

"Harry, Ginny: who are these people?" Uncle Ron asked Dad quietly, or at least, quiet for him. I guessed he was trying to be polite.

I looked at my parents anxiously, hoping they wouldn't say something stupid. Mum opened her mouth to answer, but Rose did instead.

_I knew it._

"I'm Rose Weasley."

A puzzled look crossed Ron's face.

"Um… hi," he said, still staring at Mum and Dad for an explanation.

"Ron – you'll never guess what happened!" said my Mum, trying to sound enthusiastic.

"What happened?" he asked slowly.

"Erm… well… Harry and I got called up to Dumbledore's office, and guess what?"

"What?"

"These people were waiting for us, and, guess what?"

"Will you stop saying 'guess what'?" he snapped. "What in the name of Merlin is going on?!"

"These two behind me, are Lily and James – my parents – they've come forward in time, Ron," Dad said quietly.

Ron just stared at them for a moment.

"Blimey, are you sure, Harry? I mean, they don't _look_ like you parents…"

"They're disguised, Ron. If they weren't, people would recognize them," explained Mum.

"Oh, well… okay. So…"

"And these people are Lily, James and Albus Potter. They're from the future."

"The future?"

"Yes, Ron, the future. And… they're our kids – Mine and Harry's, that is."

He snapped his gaping mouth shut.

"So… wait – hold on a minute. _Your parents _are here, Harry. They just traveled here from the _past_, and these kids… from the _future_ are _your_ _kids_?!"

"Yep," said Mum.

"Well, that's sort of… blimey that's… wow… unbelievable… but I guess it makes sense… sort of, I mean…" He took a deep breath. "Are you sure?"

"Very sure."

"So… what are you going to do?"

"We're going to help them get back," Mum said.

"And… just how are gonna do that? With a- with a Time turner?"

"No, Rose here is going to make a potion that will create a time portal. Isn't that right, Rose?"

Ron looked at her.

"Uhh… yes, that's right…" she looked at her feet uncomfortably.

Uncle Ron's face suddenly became chalky-pale, and his mouth dropped open once again.

"Rose… _Weasley_?" he whispered hoarsely, while staring at her.

He stumbled and then fell back, landing with a 'thump' that sound sounded really painful.

"Oooh, that sounded like it hurt," said Mum, wrinkling her nose.

She, Dad and Rose crouched down to see if he was okay.

"Ron? Are you all right? Ron?" she said.

He was unconscious.

"Do you think he got knocked-out when he hit his head, or do you think he fainted?" said Dad.

I laughed.

"Let's give him the benefit of the doubt, shall we?"

Everyone sniggered at this, except for Rose, who was just as pale as her father.

"Are you okay, Rose?" I asked.

"I'm fine."

"I'll wake him up," said Dad. He took out his wand.

"Ern-"

"No, wait – Don't! He could have a concussion. If you wake him with 'ernervate' it could be dangerous!" Rose said quickly.

"Oh. Okay. Let's take him up then."

"Has anyone thought about how we're going to get into the Common Room without being noticed?" asked James Jr.

"Invisibility charms," Rose said promptly, but without her usual enthusiasm. "Why don't you, Harry, take him up to the boys dormitory, and… Ginny, can you get Hermione?" She spoke very quietly.

"Okay."

"All right."

Rose conjured a stretcher, which she levitated, and then lifted Ron onto it

We walked silently to the portrait hole.

"Does anyone beside me know how to do an invisibility spell?" Rose asked.

"Um…"

"I didn't think so."

She lowered Ron to the ground gently, and then proceeded to tap each of us (except for my parents) on the head, quite hard, I might add. I felt like I was having an egg cracked on my skull.

"Ouch, Rose," I complained.

"Sorry," she said, placing the spell on herself. "It has to be hard."

Dad gave the password, and leaned against the wall, pretending to speak to mum. We crept in quickly.

The Common Room looked just the same as always, which took me a little aback. If it weren't for the kids that I didn't recognize, I would swear it was exactly the same as the Common Room fro my own time.

Dad (after informing a curious Neville that he wanted to be alone to study) led us up the small flight of stairs.

"This is his bed," he said, pointing.

After taking off his invisibility charm, Rose laid Ron down gently. She then went around taking our charms off, not taping quite so hard this time. It was just after Rose made herself visible that my Aunt Hermione walked in with Mum.

"What's going on, Harry? I thought I heard-" Everyone heard her sharp intake of breath. Her eyes traveled in a triangle – from Ron, to us (The time-travelers) and to Harry and Ginny.

She took a little breath. "Who are these people? Why were they invisible? Where have you been? Why is Ron… unconscious? And, more importantly, why does, um… that girl look like my reflection, except of course, for her red hair, freckles, and absence of brown eyes?" All of this was said with the one breath.

"Whoa, whoa, slow down there, Hermione. One question at a time," said Mum, laughing a little.

"Sorry, I'm just… outrageously curious."

"I don't think you'll believe us, but… we need you, so we need to tell you," said Dad.

"Tell me what?" She narrowed her eyes; a concentrated look.

"Ginny and I got sent to Dumbledore's office. When we walked in…" I could tell he didn't know what to say.

"There were Harry's parents," said Mum.

Hermione only blinked.

"Harry's what?" she said in a choked way.

"Harry's parents: Lily, and James. But they're teenagers. They came here accidently through a time portal."

Hermione visibly relaxed after hearing 'time'. That seemed to assure her that they weren't corpses come to haunt Harry's life.

"So, where are they?" she asked slowly.

"They're here. But they're disguised."

I looked at Lily and James, who had stepped forward slightly. Hermione scrutinized them for a second.

"I don't think I'll believe it 'till I see it," she said decidedly, ordering someone to remove the disguise.

Rose moved towards the pair and changed them back.

"I think I believe you now."

"Good," said Mum and Dad simultaneously.

"But you haven't answered all my questions yet."

"You want to know about the others?"

"Yes, of course."

"_They_ are from the future."

Hermione gasped.

"And, to make it even weirder, they're our kids."

Hermione started breathing in and out loudly, looking at the floor in thought.

"What do you mean?"

"Apparently, Harry and I are getting married in what, five years?"

"Well that's… interesting. I mean, it's great." She smiled a little.

"James, Al, and Lily Potter… And they really do look like us."

I waved.

"You need my help with getting them back." It wasn't a question.

"Yes," said Mum, "but before that, there's something else we need to tell y-"

Ron was stirring on his bed.

"Wazgoinon?" he mumbled.

Rose happened to be in Ron's line of sight, which turned out to be a bad thing.

"Aaaah!" Ron shouted, covering his head with a pillow. He muffled a chant, which I guessed to mean, "This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening."

Everyone was silent, staring at him. After a minute Ron took the pillow off his face, looked Harry directly in the eye and said, "Rose _Weasley_?! What the Hell does that mean? 'Cause it means _something_, doesn't it?"

Ron was looking angry and incredulous, and Hermione was just looking astounded. "Rose Weasley?" she whispered, looking at Rose.

Rose looked like she was about to cry; she wasn't used to her parents speaking about her this way. I went over and slipped my arm through hers.

"Yes, well um, um, well… She's um…" Mum looked at Dad for help.

"She's… your Daughter. Yours and Hermione's. _Yours_." He emphasized the last word, trying to portray Hermione and Ron as an entity.

Hermione swayed dangerously.

"Oh, not you too!" complained Dad.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I just… I'm just… fine." She slid down the wall to the floor. She stared at the ground, thinking.

It was an entertaining scene, I thought. The looks on my Aunt's and Uncle's teenage faces were hilarious. It was way too obvious that they fancied each other _A lot_.

I looked at Lily then. She was staring at James, who was ignoring her.

And then it hit me: In the Library, Lily was exhibiting signs that said to James "Leave me alone". James, of course, complied. But now that she was staring at him, he was confused, and didn't know what to do but look away… or maybe that was his idea of payback.

"Erm… should we give you two some space then?" said Mum uncomfortably, breaking the silence that I hadn't noticed.

A creaking noise told me that the door was opening. Everyone turned to look at it.

In the doorway stood a tall man who wore a long robe, a white beard and had lots of wrinkles. Even from across the room I noticed his piercing blue eyes.

"Ah, I thought I might find you here," Albus Dumbledore said softly.

**What do you think? Good cliffhanger? I'm trying to get the story rolling here... Pleeease leave a Review! :) **


	6. Dumbledore, the not exactly helpful Head

**I have only one thing to say about how long it took me to update: Finals. Okay, two things: Finals and moving house, and everyone knows how trying those things are. That being said, you may be surprised at how short this chapter is. I'm dubbing it a 'transition' chapter, But it's necessary to the plot.**

**Ginny's POV**

"Ah, I thought you might be here," said Dumbledore quietly, looking , I thought, wary and a tad bit guilty.

I first felt surprised, and then annoyed; Harry and I had scoured the castle, trying to find someone who knew where he went, and now here he stood before us. Then I was relieved: Here was Dumbledore, the man that could pull solutions out of the hat, even if there was no hat.

There was a loud thump as Rose, Lily, James and Albus jumped.

"Harry, Ginny: Would you join me in the hall for a moment?" Dumbledore said quietly.

"All right," said Harry.

We followed him, and Dumbledore closed the door behind us.

"Professor, we-" said Harry.

"I know what's happening, Harry. Believe me, I'm well informed. I only need you to tell me how much they know." He stared down at me, surprisingly, piercing me with his intense, blue gaze.

"Lily and James know that they're Harry's parents, that's all," I answered.

He nodded seriously but absently.

"Come back inside, I need to explain…" He turned on his heel.

"Wait, Sir, don't you want to know -" started Harry, but the headmaster was already inside.

It was evident that neither Hermione nor Ron had made any progress towards acceptance, in fact they were standing at opposite ends of the room, facing away from each other. The tension in the air was a tangible electric feeling.

Dumbledore stood facing us, and everyone was paying him rapt attention.

"Seeing as you are all very curious people, it seems foolish to have to explain what has happened to you. You all know that those who have time traveled did so by a time portal?"

Most of us nodded, while Ron and Hermione said, "No."

"You haven't had time to explain to them, then?" He turned to the confused teens. "Lily and James and James, Albus and Lily (who are from the future) traveled here through time portals, an invention of the twenty- first century.

"The headmaster of Hogwarts in the year two thousand and twenty three sent me a letter explaining eveything; everything he knows, that is. There is a potion that has to be made in order for them to get to their own time, and I would advise that it be made as soon as is possible."

_He would advise?_

Harry was think the same thing as I was. "But, sir, aren't you going to help-"

"I'm afraid not, Harry. I can, however, help you in other ways."

"Professor, we really need-" I started to say, but Dumbledore cut me off with one of his signature glances.

"How can you help us, Sir?" Harry asked.

"I can help you by giving you permission to use all of the schools potion ingredients and equipment."

"That's-that's it? Well we need…"

"Help?" Dumbledore repeated.

"We need a lot of help," I said.

"Why do you need help?"

"Because… they need to get back!"

"And why is that so urgent?"

_What is this, some kind of psychoanalysis? _

But when I actually listened to the meaning of the question, I realised that I didn't know the answer.

"Umm… because they'll be stuck here if they don't go soon?"

"Not quite," he said, smiling a little. He faced the six time-travelers, and with an air of plunging-in, said in a grave voice, "If you don't return before the seventy-two hours are over, you will be trapped here, existing as mere spirits until the time you are born."

A terror-filled shiver went down my spine, and a feeling of dread made my chest feel as though it was plummeting to the floor.

_Trapped… existing as mere spirits… _

I wanted to cry at the look on their faces. I was safe, but they… they had just found out that unless they left soon, they would be forced to live a half-life for more than a decade.

The awful silence was broken by a strangled voice, "But sir, can't you- can't you help us?" It was Albus.

"I -" Dumbledore suddenly stiffened up, looking at the ground as if he was listening to a message whispered in his ear, and hurried out.

"Professor Dumbledore!" we cried, running after him.

"Where'd he go?!" yelled young James.

"I don't know! We have to- we've got to- We have to go after him!" said Al.

"He can't leave us!" said young Lily defiantly.

"We need- _bloody_- HELP!" Rose shouted.

There was a strage quiet; nobody had anything else to say, anything else to complain about. Then,

"What're we going to do?" Rose whimpered.

"Make the potion, I guess," said Harry's dad.

Everyone knew, or could sense, that there was no point in going after Dumbledore. There was no qestion that his actions meant he really wouldn't help us.

"Okay then, all right… we'll just… Lily and James, you really need your disguises back on."

It struck me that she kept saying this. Sure, I knew it was important, but only the teachers would recognise Lily and James. What was with all the urgency?

Rose put James and Lily's disguises back on, and then explained the situation to Ron and Hermione. They understood but they seemed very awkward. That annoyed me. It was _so _obvious that they liked each other, I just felt like shouting at them "STOP BEING SO DARN STUBBORN!" But I didn't think that was appropriate in the tense circumstances.

"Wher're we going to make this potion? In Myrtle's bathroom?" asked James Junior.

"It worked last time, why not?" said Harry.

I was forcefully reminded of my first year at Hogwarts. The diary that wouldn't be destroyed… I supressed a shudder.

"Dumbledore said we could use the school's potions ingredients, so I guess that means… does that mean proffesor Snape's stuff? Because…" I said. I didn't need to finish the sentence.

All of the time-travelers tensed, looking alarmed.

"We'll get potions stuff!" yelled James, Al and Lily.

"Snape's a _Professor_?" said James Sr. incredulously.

"Erm… yeah…" I said.

"I know: Why don't James, Lily, Ginny, Harry, Hermione and Ron go and… make sure Myrtle's bathroom is available, and we'll get the potions things."

We nodded.

"Oh, and can you get some food? I'm starving," said young James.

"Make that a _lot_ of food," added Al. His stomach rumbled.

"All right," I said, "We'll meet you in Myrtle's bathroom in… what? Twenty minutes?"

"That should be enough," said Rose.

"See you later, then."

In a very natural gesture, Harry took my hand as we walked away.

**Leave a review, let me know what you think!**

**P.S. I'm planning to _extensivly_ edit chapter 3, so if you want me to keep anything or if you have any quotes that you like from that chapter, please tell me. Thanks!**


	7. Snogging, sneaking and five foot one

**Lily Potter's POV**

As we skulked through the castle, trying to avoid dinner-goers, the subject of conversation somehow came to my height. That was something my brothers liked to tease me about.

I defended myself grumpily. "Victoire is short," I said.

"Yeah," said James, "But you're _teensy_, though."

"Five-foot-one is not _teensy_. It's perfectly normal, for your information," I lied. "You only think I'm small because _you're_ both freakishly large!"

"I'm what, Five-foot-ten and you're calling _that_ freakishly large?" Al said, shaking his head. "You have a weird perspective, Lily."

"And you're still growing," I pressed on stubbornly as we ducked into a hidden staircase to avoid a raucous group of Ravencalws. I knew we were being stupid, but it felt good to have something unimportant to argue about. It made the situation seem somehow less frightening.

Of course this didn't work for Rose, who always had to get worked up in stressful situations.

"Oh, will you all just shut up!" she wailed as James started to retort. "I'm trying to concentrate and I have a headache!"

"Gosh, you need to relax a bit-" James started to say, but Rose was ignoring him.

"I'm so stressed!" she cried.

"James's right, Rose you just need to calm-"

"Don't you tell me to calm down, Albus!" She shouted, bursting into the hall. "I just found out that unless I don't make that potion soon, we'll be stuck here living as 'mere spirits' until we're born. And in case you've forgotten, that's a decade away!" She glared at Al.

He took in an audible breath and said, "There are a couple of things wrong with your little… tirade, Rose. First, I wasn't going to say 'calm down', I was going to say 'calm _yourself_ down'. Second, yes, Rose, I know how long a decade is. I'm a bit smarter than you think I am. Third, you are _not_ making that potion alone. We're going to make it together. We're just as worried as you are about this. We just have a different way of showing it. And to be honest, your way of showing stress is a really annoying… I've wanted to say that since we took our OWLS." He half-smiled in a satisfied way.

I hadn't realized that we'd stopped walking until then; when Rose huffed out an angry breath and stalked away from us.

Al laughed and started followed her.

Rose abruptly turned around.

"I'm sorry. I'm being stupid, aren't I?"

"It's okay Rose, you don't have to feel bad about it. I was only joking," Al said.

"Yeah," said James. "Everyone's stupid sometimes. I was wondering when you were going to join the rest of us."

Rose rolled her eyes but smiled.

I heard footsteps in the distance.

"Can you hear that?" I whispered.

"Yeah," Al whispered.

"Get in here," said James quietly; pulling aside the tapestry we had just exited through. We hurried in.

The footsteps became louder and then stopped. The person passed us three times, and I heard muttering from whoever it was.

"I'd forgotten," James murmured.

"Forgotten what?" I asked.

"We're on the seventh floor…"

"Malfoy," we whispered.

"Should we let him go in or…?"

"'Let him go in'? Of course we should let him go in! There is _no meddling allowed_!" Rose hissed.

"But I wanna-" my brothers and I whined together.

"_No_! You already know what's going to happen, you do _not_ need to interfere!"

Because Rose was so forceful on this point, we were forced to resort to peeking through a gap between the wall and the tapestry.

For some reason, Malfoy couldn't get in.

"There must be someone else in there," Al said.

Sure enough, a minute later, Gregory Goyle came out, holding hands with a giggling girl. Without taking any notice of Malfoy, the couple embraced in the sickest snog that I had ever seen or heard. Malfoy's face was a plaster of rage and disgust.

I didn't know whether to laugh or gag.

"Goyle! What do you think you're doing?!" Malfoy ejaculated after a stunned silence. He looked like he wanted to say more, but couldn't with the girl there.

"Sorry Draco," Goyle said sheepishly with a stupid grin on his face, "We were just-"

"Get away. We'll talk later," said Draco dangerously.

Goyle shrugged his beefy shoulders, and pulled his girlfriend around the corner. I thought I heard their kissing start again, and I shuddered.

Malfoy turned and swaggered away.

"Is he gone?" Rose whispered.

"Yeah," Al said.

"Well that was interesting," I said when we were out.

James burst out laughing.

Al looked the way I felt – a smile was tugging at the corner of his mouth, but he was still grimacing.

"Just out of curiosity," said Rose when James finally stopped laughing, "how on _earth_ did we end up on the seventh floor?"

James explained, "Erm, we went in behind that tapestry, you know, the one of the Mer-pigs, to get out of the Ravenclaws' way."

Rose still looked confused. "But that was on the _fourth_ floor."

"Yeah, well, the stairs behind that tapestry lead to the seventh floor," Al said.

"Oh… Merlin!"

"What?"

"It's seven twenty three! We're late!"

We knew better than to try and calm her, so we followed Rose back through the tapestry of the balletic trolls.

"Look Lily, It's either feel like an idiot, or get caught breaking in to a teacher's office," said Rose.

We were in a hall just outside Snape's office, going over our plan for the final time. I had just expressed my fear of feeling stupid while I patrolled the corridor with James.

I sighed. "Fine."

"Okay. If you need to warn us, tap the left side of that rod." Al motioned to the little silver stick I had been handed earlier. "It'll make my one light up."

"Okay," I said.

"Let's go, Rose."

"Wait!" I said.

"What?"

"Um… this stick is pretty darn symmetrical, so… how do I know which side is the right side?"

"Oh! It's like... shake it."

I did, and on one side of the stick the word 'left' appeared. I almost laughed.

"Thanks, Al."

"See you in a bit."

They walked away, and I heard the door close softly.

Not until we planned our break-in to Snape's office did I realize how much stuff my brothers carried around in their pockets; there were at least a dozen things James was looking forward to lobbing at Snape if he happened to come too close to us.

"How long have they been in there, James?" I asked a few minutes later.

He checked his watch.

"About twenty minutes."

"Twenty minutes!" I bit my lip anxiously. "I hope they're alright."

"They're fine, Lily. Did you see how long that list was? They'll be at least another ten minutes."

"I think we should get a message to the others; they'll wonder where we are."

"I don't think so. Didn't you just tell me that they couldn't get any where Snape – especially Lily?"

"Well, yes… you're right."

I examined the ceiling, my fingers absently playing with Al's little rod. It slipped from my fingers.

"Oops," I said.

We both lunged for the silver stick. I knocked my head on the wall, but James snagged it just before it hit the ground.

How grateful I was that he played Quidditch.

"Thanks, James," I sighed.

"No problem. You want to be careful with that," he advised. His eyes traveled to my forehead, and they widened.

"What?"

"How the… How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Your head: it looks like it's been… slashed… or _stabbed_." His nose wrinkled .

"Huh… I must have done that when I tried to grab the stick."

James was reaching out to touch my head.

"Hey!"

"Let me see-"

"Don't touch it! I want to see-"

"Stay still-"

"No I want t-"

"I'm not g-"

"What is this rumpus?" said a snide, oily voice.

James and I turned slowly and saw a dark shape. It took me a second to realize that it was a man; his resemblance to an overgrown bat was striking.

"Um, we um…" I tried to inconspicuously nudge James in the ribs.

_Throw something at him! Throw that pointy thing _that_ looks like an angry gorilla!_ I wanted to shout these thoughts at James, but I couldn't. Not because I didn't want Snape to hear, although that was a main reason, but because I was frozen: Mentally frozen, not physically.

You see, I'd never imagined before that an overgrown bat would look at me the way this one was.

Snape's eyes, as they saw me, were filled with _recognition_. I guessed it was because I looked like my Mum. But as he continued to stare at me with wide eyes, I realized it must be because I looked like Lily – the Lily he loved.

_Poor man._

"Um, Professor Snape! Um…"

He stopped staring when I said 'Proffesor'.

"What," he said in a frighteningly silky voice, "are you doing here at this time of night?"

"We, er…" James said, but got interrupted by Albus.

"Okay, that's every-"

"_Potter_! What are you doing in my office?!" Snape hissed.

"Er, Sir, I was just… um… using the, erm… permission I have to use your, erm… potions… stores."

Albus was _very_ shocked to see Snape there. Obviously, he couldn't come up with a decent cover story. Internally shaking my head at Al, I intervened for him.

"Sir, we're from-"

"I didn't ask _you_, Miss Weasley, I was asking Mr. Potter." His eyes slid from Al to me and back again.

It really seemed like Snape thought Al was Dad; but I supposed that I couldn't blame him. When Albus was wearing his reading glasses (which he was at the time) he looked remarkably like our Father.

"Professor Snape," Al said, "Just so you know, I'm not Harry Potter. I'm _Albus_ Potter, Harry's son." He removed his glasses.

If Snape wasn't scary, it would've been funny to watch him so uncomfortable after Al's answer.

"Now that you are finished Potter," whispered Snape, trying, I thought, to sound like he knew what was going on, "_leave_."

"All right then," Al said brightly, "bye."

We left and kept walking until we were four halls away.

"Whew!" I exclaimed, leaning against the wall.

"That was," Rose panted, "Very close."

"But we got out of it, didn't we?" said James.

"What did you do to your head, Lily?" Al said.

"Bumped it." I shrugged.

Al was grimacing at the wound.

"Honestly, it's nothing _that_ bad. I can hardly feel it." In truth it was starting to hurt a little.

"Let me see it," he said.

"No! I want to see it first."

"I don't think you want to see it, Lily." Al edged to the right discreetly. I looked at the place he was going – There was a mirror.

"HA!" I shouted as I booked it for the mirror.

"There's no point trying to stop her." I heard Rose say with a sigh.

What I saw was stomach-turning-ly repulsive. On my forehead was a rough, jagged gash. There were pieces of rock in the cut, and a blood was smeared thickly to my temple. All in all, it wasn't the nicest thing I had ever seen.

"Erm… help?" I turned around and looked imploringly at Rose.

"Oh, Lily! That looks terrible." She shook her head. "You are without a doubt the most accident-prone person I've ever come across."

I rolled my eyes.

"So are you going to help me out, or what?"

"I'm not the best at healing spells, but I can try," Rose answered.

I rolled my eyes at her uncertainty.

_Rose: 'not__ the best'? _

"Hold still." She first cleaned the wound, and then sewed it up.

"Thanks Rose." My head looked perfect, as I knew it would.

"Let's go," Al said.

We made our way to Myrtle's bathroom, thankfully without running into anyone else.

"We've got everything," I said as soon as we entered the room.

"Great," smiled Mum.

"Here," said Dad, handing James a tray delicious-looking food.

Al and James started stuffing it down their throats like the real boys that they were.

"Erm… are you going to save any for Rose and Me?"

"What?" said James thickly. "Oh! Right." He handed me the ninety-five percent empty tray.

"Thanks," Rose said and I laughed.

"So are you ready to start, then?" Hermione said quietly.

She and Ron and Lily and James were all being uncharacteristically quiet. It was probably from shock, and it would probably wear off soon, but I still wanted to do something about it.

"Yep," I said.

Rose and I finished eating, and joined the others in gathering our supplies.

"All right," Rose announced, "We first need to make a base potion, which will allow us to travel," she pointed at the left page of the open book on her lap, "and then we make a potion which will determine which direction we travel in." Rose then pointed to the right page.

"Let's get started, then," Rose said.

As we made the potion, I became more and more annoyed, especially at Lily and James, for how they were ignoring each other. None of them were talking; they just mutely did what Rose asked of them.

"I need to use the loo," I said to Rose, having decided that I couldn't stand a minute more of my Grandparents silence.

"This is a bathroom, Lily," she sighed without taking her eyes from the potion.

"Yeah, I know. But you can't expect me to go with the guys in here!"

"Fine, I don't care. Why are you asking me, anyway?"

_I'm asking you because I need a cover for why I'm about to disappear for the next five minutes._

I said, "Because you're… never mind. I'll see you in a minute." I got up and exited into the hall to formulate a plan.

Five minutes later, I entered Myrtle's bathroom again with a purposely anxious look on my face.

"Lily and James?" I asked quietly. "I need to talk to you both for a minute.

I bit my lip and wrung my hands. I wondered if I was laying on the guilt-look too much, but they seemed to buy it as they stood and came over to me.

"What's this about, Lily?" asked my grandmother gently.

"Look, I'll explain it to you in a minute. Can we talk somewhere else?"

"Sure."

I led them to the empty classroom I had chosen while plotting my grand scheme.

I opened the door and James and Lily entered. I slammed and locked the door behind them, with a little invention of my Uncle George's.

_Any second..._

"Lily, aren't you coming in?" said Lily right on cue.

"Here," I said as I slipped a note under the door. "This'll explain everything!"

There was no noise as they read the note, and then,

"No WAY! Lily Potter, you let me out _now_! Understand?" It was Lily screeching at the top of her lungs.

"Sorry, I've thought it through and this really is the best way."

"No, it isn't! LET ME OUT!"

"Sorry!" I said again.

I went back to the bathroom.

"That should take care of things," I muttered as I took my place next to Rose.

"What d'you mean?" asked Dad.

"What did you do?" said James and Al at the same time.

"I locked Lily and James in an empty classroom."

"What? Why?" Dad said, looking a little upset.

"Have you noticed that they're not talking? If we want them to be on good terms when they get back to the past, they need a good, long, old-fashioned talk."

"But how do you-"

"How do I know they're going to talk and resolve their mutual issues?"

Dad nodded.

"If Lily's anything like me, and I think she is, she won't be able to stand the silence for more than twenty minutes. She'll talk, and eventually ask James questions, and if my plan works, he'll ask questions too."

"Okay," he said, but he still looked a little apprehensive.

I didn't know what to say to him.

Had I done the right thing? Or had made a rash, stupid choice like my usual impulsive self?

But it was the only think I knew to do, however idiotic shutting up my grandparents would sound to someone else. Lily and James were teenagers – They were young and lost and way too stubborn for their own good.

"Lily, hand me that jar of lovage," said Rose's voice, cutting into my thoughts.

Feeling less guilty and rather satisfied with myself, I complied.

**Okay, That, ladies and Gentlemen, was chapter 7. **

**Please let me know what you think, and if you thought the'snogging' part of this chapter was actually funny.**

**Cheers, from Cheer... haha!**


	8. Trapped

**A/N: I don't think I've ever written that before... "A/N"... anyway, thanks to those of you who reviewed chapter 7, you're the best! **

**I thought I'd just give you a backround on the new Generation: They're from the year 2023, and it's about May. James's birthday is October, 2004 so he's 18. Al's birthday is April, 2006, He just turned 17. Lily's birthday is May 2008, so she's _almost _15... tell me if I just contradicted something in chapter 4... Rose was born in January, so she's also 17.**

**Now that I've bored you with my birthday talk, shall we proceed with the chapter?**

Oh, and I don't own Harry Potter...

**Lily Evans POV**

**Sixty eight hours left**

In the almost-empty classroom it was silent.

It was the kind of silence that was so absolute that there was a distant-sounding ringing in my ears. And that ringing was really annoying me.

Right then, I felt so many emotions that I just decided to ignore them and be confused; confusion was a feeling I could handle.

The ringing grew louder and more irritating. I wanted to yell 'SHUT UP!' to it, but that would've made me feel weird. I mean, what sort of person yells at a non-existing ring?

I sat on a desk from which I could see James. He was sitting on a pulled-back chair, staring at the floor. Glancing at my watch, I saw that we had been in the room for fifteen minutes: James Potter had not moved for fifteen minutes. Before this imprisonment, that would've been inconceivable.

It was so quiet! I had to make some noise.

I slowly reached into the pocket of my jeans and quietly took out the folded piece of parchment, reveling in the crinkling sound it made.

_Dear Lily and James,_

_I'm really, really sorry._

_Okay, I'm not sorry, but I would be if I didn't care about you._

_After the conversation we had Lily, I'm convinced that you need nothing more than a good sit-down talk with James._

_Please work out your problems! Talk!! If you don't I'll be severely disappointed. Do you know how heartbreaking it is for a granddaughter to watch her Grandparents ignoring each other?_

_I'm leaving you in this room for an hour and hopefully you'll work things out._

_Thanks!_

_Love Lily_

I shook my head. Did she really think we were going to go along with her little plan? It was humanly impossible for a pair as awkward as James and I to talk and 'work things out'.

I couldn't wait for this hour to be over.

* * *

**10 Minutes Later…**

By this time, there was this itchy feeling in the back of my throat. I needed to talk. If I didn't soon, I would be in danger of sudden and spontaneous lunacy.

"Um… this is nice weather we're having," I whispered to myself; partly because my voice had stopped working, partly because that would sound incredibly stupid if spoken aloud… or maybe it was just plain stupid.

But James heard me.

"What?" he asked, officially shattering the quiet of the room.

I cleared my throat and said quietly, "Um, nothing. I was just talking to myself."

He made this 'whatever' face and turned away to stare at the blackboard.

"Erm… do you wanna play… naughts and crosses?" I had no idea what made me say that.

James gave me this look that plainly said 'what in Merlin's name are you on about?' In other words, he thought I was acting like a crazy woman.

"Well?"

"No," he said. "No, I'd rather sit here gazing aimlessly off into space like the real loon that I am." He looked at me. "I'd rather not play naughts and crosses with you just now. I'm having the time of my life here, you see." He smiled sarcastically and resumed his 'gazing off into space'.

"Okay…"

I glanced at Lily's note again.

"Look. I just want to ask you one thing, and then I'll shut up, I promise."

"What?" James said quickly. I knew he wasn't asking what I what my question was, but why I was asking anything.

"I only need to ask you something one, because I'll go mad if I don't and because I also want to know."

"Okay. Fine. What is it?" he said curtly.

I stared at my hands for a moment before saying, "Why are you ignoring me?"

"Why am _I_ ignoring _you_? That's a new one," he said loudly. "What happened to, 'Leave me alone Potter!' or 'Shut up Potter!' or 'I wouldn't date you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid!'?"

I was shocked. I didn't think such an amount of emotion could flow out at the mention of this subject; a subject I had naively thought was harmless.

"I'm sorry-"

He stood up and addressed the ceiling as if he hadn't heard me. "But of course, you wouldn't care would you? I mean, who _would_ care that someone's acting completely different to you all of a sudden except James-arrogance-Potter? 'Cause I'm sure I've been stupid to expect that you would just act normally."

His words didn't make any sense, but his anger did, and that made _me_ angry.

I stood too.

"I was just trying to be nice!"

"Really?" he scoffed. "You have a funny way of 'trying to be nice'."

"Yeah? Well…" I couldn't think of a good argument, so I pretended to have an itchy head.

"What're you doing?" said James after a while.

"What does it look like?" I demanded furiously, or at least I tried to say it furiously; the annoying, pathetic awkwardness I felt was preventing me from speaking properly.

"Do you have head lice or something?" he did this kind of funny face; a cross between revulsion and embarrassment.

I threw him a filthy look but stopped scratching my head. I realized that I must have looked a bit absurd.

There was another long silence, and then James sighed.

"Look, I'm sorry; I didn't want to shout at you, it's just…"

"I understand," I said quietly. "Can we just… agree to not argue… and when we get back, just… try to be polite to one another?"

James nodded. "All right." We both sat down again.

This was so utterly, insanely bizarre. I was feeling so many emotions, I thought I would surely explode. I felt horrified because I knew that I had married Potter, disgusted because I had a son with him (the thought made me shudder), panicked because of the limited amount of time I had to try and live and infuriated because I couldn't do anything about it. Now I was stuck in a room with James Potter feeling _uncomfortable_ and _inadequate_. I'd always been so annoyed, confident and, in a strange way, _myself_, around him. So I felt confused… again. I didn't even try to break the silence that stretched on for the next half-hour or so.

The door creaked open and Lily poked her head in.

"Hey," she said softly, looking, I was pleased to see, a little embarrassed, "You can come out now."

At once I hopped off the desk and walked to Myrtle's bathroom, James and Lily's footsteps following behind me.

I was so confused.

**A/N: Part of me feels like this is the weirdest chapter I've ever written... Please tell me what you think! Also, I've almost finished writing chapter 3 'beta', so that should be exciting!**

**Until next time! :)**


	9. Travelling

**Hey! Sorry for the long wait -- School you know, and Evil Math Teacher, he didn't help either... (Okay, he's not evil, but he teaches _math_ for crying out loud...)**

**Ginny's POV**

**Sixty Seven hours left**

Myrtles' bathroom was becoming steamier and more uncomfortable by the minute as the hot vapor from the potion permeated the room. I wished there was a window in here.

"Okay," said Rose suddenly. "Now we need to add a – be prepared it's quite disgusting – a _toe_ hair from each of the time-travelers."

_Ugh. That's kind of gross…_

"Seriously?" said Lily II, grabbing the book and looking to see for herself if the dire announcement was indeed necessary. Apparently it was. She groaned dramatically in a way that I thought was appropriate for someone who just found out they needed to have a finger amputated, not a toe hair. "No!"

"For goodness sake, Lily," I reproved automatically, "It's not like you're getting your _toe_ cut off. Don't be so dramatic."

"Mum, but it's still gross, you have to admit-"

"Hurry up! This potion isn't going to stay opalescent very long!" warned Rose, who had already added her portion.

"Right," said Lily II. She sat on the floor with the others, removed her shoes, and yanked out a hair from a toe, looking disgusted.

"Er," she said awkwardly.

"Drop it in," Rose instructed, and Lily obeyed. All the time travelers added their hairs with varying degrees of disgust and/or embarrassment on their faces.

A few seconds after the last hair was added the potion turned a vivid, acid green, and it spat and bubbled like mad.

"And to think, our _toe hairs_ did that," said James II, shaking his head as he looked at the potion.

"Be grateful it was toe hair and not something else," said Rose, stirring the potion.

"What could be worse than _toe_ hairs?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

"Erm..."

"Good, because I'd really rather not."

We continued making the potion, or to be more accurate, Rose continued to make the potion while we followed her instructions.

"All right," said Rose, standing up and wiping her hands on her robe, "Now we have to let it boil for seven hours."

"Okay. What do we do after that?" asked Hermione hoarsely. It was the first thing she'd said in over two hours.

"We keep adding ingredients until we're done."

We all stood there awkwardly until Harry suggested, "Why don't we go to the common room and get some sleep?"

"Good Idea," I agreed.

"Hey Harry," I said quietly as we climbed up a staircase to the fourth floor. A problem had just occurred to me.

"Yeah?" he said quietly back.

"Where are they going to sleep?"

He thought for a moment. "Good question. Um… they could sleep… er…"

"Exactly."

"In the common room?" I gave him a look. "Okay, that wasn't a good idea."

"No, it was a fine idea, only there's that little problem of kids who like to study into the wee hours of the morning."

We kept mulling around ideas until we came to the decision that Lily and Lily would sleep heads-and-tails in my bed, James I and Al would do the same in Harry's bed, and Harry, James II and I would sleep in the Common Room. We figured that we could pretend to be studying and then fall asleep, which happened very often, and our new friend and exchange student, Jamie Porter, was studying and fell asleep too.

We got to the Common Room and, having explained our plan on the way, put it into action.

Harry and I ended up falling asleep on arm chairs right by the fire, it was warm and comfortable and all too soon…

"Wake up. Wake up, Ginny. The potion's ready." It was Lily II.

"Huh, what?" I mumbled, barely awake.

"The potion is ready," she said again.

"What? But it's only-"

"We let you and Harry sleep, and finished the potion ourselves."

Even through my groggy mind, I knew I ought to feel glad about this news, but somehow, I couldn't find it in me. I glanced around and saw Harry looking at me, and his face looked the way I felt.

"Come on. We're going back to Myrtle's bathroom."

"Okay."

We followed her out of the barely-lighted Common Room, and for some reason, I had a feeling that it was my last time doing so.

Rose was stirring the now purple potion, muttering under her breath and looking a lot like Hermione on exam day. "It's ready," she announced as soon as she saw us.

"I have the glasses," said Al, handing small, slightly dusty shot-glasses around to the time-travelers.

Everyone was in here; James, Lily, Hermione, Ron, James II, Al, and Lily II, and of course, Harry.

Rose was standing now and was holding her own glass. She cleared her throat. "I just wanted to say… thank you, Harry, Ginny, Mu- Hermione and Ron. Thanks for helping us. I guess… I'll see you in June, then." She sat down again, took the ladle from the potion, and poured its contents into her glass.

Hermione went to her and hugged her shoulders.

"Yeah, thanks," Al murmured, filling his own glass.

"I'll see you in June," said Lily II. She took the ladle from Al, filled her glass, and then handed it to James II.

"Yeah, we owe you one… even if you _did_ sleep through the putrid smell, and didn't have to sacrifice more body parts than I cared to know about…" I managed a small chuckle at this, and he smiled as he filled his glass to the brim.

James took the ladle and filled his glass. He handed it to Lily. "Thanks," they said at the same time, whether to me or to each other, I wasn't sure.

Lily filled her glass.

"Oh," I said all of a sudden. I rushed to my kids and gave them each a bone-crushing hug that I knew would be familiar to them.

"Thanks Mum," Lily smiled.

"All right," said Rose. "I think this will feel like apparition. Try to take deep breaths if possible, and bend your knees to prepare for impact." They all bent their knees. It looked a bit funny.

"On the count of three, then," She said nervously, and they counted together, "One, two, three!"

They gulped down their potions, and for a second, nothing happened. Then the air started trembling, and their forms were quivering, blurring. Their glasses fell to the floor with a tinkling _crash_. The whole room took on a purple-ish/ blue-ish tint, and the floor started shaking, then rumbling. I watched them spin round and round, like bizarre spinning-tops and I knew it was happening, they were about to leave this time.

Suddenly, there was a high-pitched, painful wail. I automatically covered my ears.

Something was wrong.

"What's happening?" Hermione yelled over the noise.

As if in answer to her question, the noise stopped. The motion stopped. And all of the time-travelers fell to the ground.

They didn't get up.

**Dun, _Duhn_, DUHN!!**


	10. Dream

**Lily Potter's POV**

I was flying.

Well, not flying as much as floating… or falling.

Ouch.

It was strange, but I felt the pain before I heard the eardrum-killing _crash _of a thousand pieces of glass. I rested on my face for a moment.

Without warning, the floor on which I was laid turned to glass, and as if I had never landed on it, I crashed through the floor and started falling again.

When I landed the next time, it was on a cold, metal park-bench. It was nighttime, very dark; the only source of light was a streetlamp that omitted a pale, purplish glow. Behind me was a normal looking, brick warehouse that shouted _vacant! _

It scared me.

Along came the Knight bus. Ah, I had been expecting it, and I was all the more eager to leave because of the vacant building behind me.

I heard the conductor's voice coming from the front of the bus, away from my sight.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus," he said, his voice strangely echo-y. "Please board quickly as your palace doesn't like to be kept waiting. Thank you."

I came around to the front of the purple bus to say hello, and I was shocked to see that no one was standing there. The voice had been coming from the bus – the bus that suddenly had eyes and a mouth. Odd.

"Well," he – she? It? – said in the same echoing, and now impatient, voice, "Are you going to get on, or what?"

I scrambled to board the bus before the bus could get angry

_Are you happy now? _I thought as I sat down on a bouncy, plastic covered seat. The bus was empty, I noticed.

"No I am not," snapped the bus, "Now shut up and sit back, I have some cats to run over."

So the bus was a mind-reader, was it? And apparently a cat-hater, too. Did he know that animal cruelty was a crime? I concluded he probably did.

_Sheesh, what an idiot!_

_He's a bus_, I reproved myself, _how could it possibly know about animal cruelty?!_

_But it's a talking, _mind-reading_ bus. It has more intelligence than I originally thought._

_And this is a dream._

_Oh, is it? _I felt honestly relieved.

_Yeah, so you should listen to me._

_No, you should shut the heck up._

"And you should top talking to yourself Lily Potter, that's the first sign of insanity, you know," he added matter-of-factly.

I was too agitated to think anything in reply.

"Lily," the bus said an extra echo-y voice.

_What? _I grumbled.

"Li-ly," she persisted, more slowly and loudly this time.

"What?!" I yelled back.

I was on a flat, somewhat hard surface. I opened my eyes and immediately squeezed them shut as golden sunlight threatened to blind me.

"Lily!" an aghast voice said. "How _dare_ you shout at your mother?!" _This _voice wasn't scary and echoing, it was loud and familiar and safe. It was James.

"Oh, go close the curtains, James. She's getting blinded." Scolding… Mum.

The light got considerably dimmer, and I felt confident enough to open my eyes.

I was in an unfamiliar room. The walls, floor and ceiling were all made of the same light wood paneling. On each wall, except for the one on my right, was a Gryffindor tapestry. The wall that wasn't decorated by a tapestry was covered in hammocks. The room of requirement, I realized.

But before I noticed this, my eyes were filled with concerned brown eyes which were surrounded by a very freckly face.

"Mum!" I croaked. I cleared my throat. "What's going on? What happened?!"

I glanced around the room quickly. Only my brothers, Mum, Dad and I were here.

"Can't you guess?" She laughed once, it was a bitter sound. "I didn't work."

At first I didn't get it. But soon enough, my mind was assaulted by a wave of new, powerful memories.

A strange letter. A flash of orange light. Time travelling…

I understood after that.

"Oh… But – But we can fix it, right? I mean, I know the potion took a while to make, and it was even more complicated because we didn't recreate the time portal, but that's okay, right? We can make another potion, or – or we can do we can do something else! We can find a really powerful time-turner, or… something. Oh, what am I talking about? I'm groggy because I've been sleeping. But we can't give up; we have to have a plan! So what's the plan?"

All that answered me was silence.

"What?" I said self-consciously. I stood up and was pleased to feel that my legs were really steady. "Look," I continued, "I know that people hate it when I talk really fast and all at once like that, but seriously, can someone… answer… my… question?" my lips were hardly moving by the end.

"What is it?" I said weakly.

"Lily… we can't go back. We're stuck."

The truth hit me with the force of a thousand caffeinated rhinos.

We were stuck. We were going to disappear.

**Hello Everyone, Happy New Year!!! This is you New Year's Gift :) Yeah, I know it's been four months, and I left you on a cliff hanger... Okay, I'm sorry. The nest chapter will be up much sooner, I promise. Thankyou so much for all you brilliant reviews and for favoriting me. You're the best! Cookies -- Love, Me. **

**Oh, and I'm sorry this chapter is short and boring. I have a feeling I'll be doing the same thing with this chapter that I did with chapter three (Editing like there's no tomorrow) in the future.**

**Okay, I'm really gonna go now.**

**Bye ;)**


	11. Charmed

_Wow... Um, so I'm still alive. I'm so sorry for not updating sooner, but life got in the way, you know? I was rereading the _Harry Potter_ series recently, and the pure Harry Potter-ishness of it all just got to me, and I had to write again. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. And as always, please review! _

**Lily Evan's POV**

**Sixty Two Hours Left**

I hate feeling depressed. I really hate it.

I've always thought of myself as someone who's happy, optimistic.

But there was nothing happy about this. If there was, I wouldn't feel depressed. The fact that there was absolutely nothing we could do was what bothered me the most. If I hated anything more than sadness, it was helplessness.

"In a few hours, we'll just disappear; fade into thin air, as it were," Rose had murmured, not meeting anyone's eyes. "From what I've read, we'll go to the time we were born. No one will be able to feel us, hear us, touch us… and that will continue until the time we walked through Dumbledore's door. So, get ready for a re-run of your life…"

Encouraging words, I know.

We were all sitting around the room of requirement, doing nothing. Ginny and Harry were on their Easter break, and so they could spend all the time they wanted with us.

Alright, so we weren't doing _nothing_, but we weren't talking, either. Rose was feverishly ripping through her potions book, trying to find if she'd done anything wrong. Harry, Ginny and Lily were sitting down together, looking at the floor – Harry's and Lily's disconsolate expressions were identical. Al and James junior were asleep. In a feat I thought was pointless to attempt, Hermione and Ron were off looking for Dumbledore.

James Potter the first was staring at me.

_Really staring_. I'd always thought that describing someone's stare as 'tangible' was ridiculous. You can't _feel_ a look!

I could now. I could even feel _where_ he was staring: my hair, my hands, and most often, my eyes.

This wasn't his usual staring. Usually, he looked at me to get my attention, or just to keep tabs on my every move. This staring was speculative, almost like he was thinking of something else, but at the same time, wondering why I was doing what I was doing.

In case you want to know, I was doing Harry's homework. It was a potions paper on a subject I had mastered a couple of weeks ago. I was so glad I had something to do with my hands, and this subject was actually interesting. We'd discovered that our handwriting looked somewhat alike, so that was good too. It felt nice to be doing something somewhat helpful. Again, the silence was bothering me.

"_GERONIMO_!"

I jumped and spilled half of Harry's ink onto the paper. Everyone was staring at the source of the outburst. It was Lily, who was quickly turning a bright tomato red.

"Sorry everyone, I just had to shout… something…" she said, and then went back to staring at the floor.

"Well thanks for waking me up, Lily. Next time, just use the old water bucket technique, okay?" croaked an irritable James Jr.

"You'd kill me."

"No I wouldn't, I love you too much. I might turn your corduroy's invisible, though."

The three siblings laughed at their inside joke – Lily wasn't wearing corduroy.

"What's that about corduroy?" Ginny asked curiously.

"Oh, nothing," Lily said in a much too casual voice.

James II was oblivious. "Are you kidding? That was the best pra—"

"If you say anything about that James, I will hex you into the next century." Lily glared at her oldest brother. Al was silently laughing.

James dropped the subject, and the room was again thrown into desolate silence.

I only noticed the presence of sound when it suddenly stopped. I was the only one who glanced up to see Rose, staring at her book with an expression of astonishment on her face.

"Rose, what is it?" I asked.

Everyone looked at me, then at Rose.

"I'm – we're… it's… Lily, when you hit your head, did any of your blood spill?" she asked her cousin tensely.

"Well, I dunno, um maybe?"

"Listen to this: 'When the time traveler takes the potion to begin his/her journey back to the present, there are some things the traveler must be sure of. Firstly, that the right amount of Fwooper claw powder, otherwise you will be thrown into the wrong time period (see pg. 117 _Aristotle rides a motorcycle_). Secondly, that no physical evidence of the time traveler remains in the time, namely, and most importantly, blood.'"

"So…"

"We could – well, not definitely, but maybe – We could get rid of that blood and… and get out of here." Rose swallowed and looked up, eyes wide and hopeful.

***

**24 Hours Later…**

"Why the hell… _who_ the hell…"

"What kind of idiotic, reckless, inconsiderate _imbecile _would do such a thing? Honestly!"

"I think I'm gonna be sick. Like literally, bring it down all over Al's shoes."

"'Cause that'll make everything _so_ much better."

These were the sort of comments my fellow time-travelers were coming out with.

After clearing up Lily's blood and then trying the potion –unsuccessfully—again, the prominent emotion had been despair. Crying and comforting had ensued, which was honestly quite exhausting, so we'd all fallen asleep on the floor of the Room of Requirement. As soon as we were all awake, we had a furious brain-storming session, which resulted in some serious anger at each other and at whoever had sent us to 1996. This, I believe, was the cause of their ridiculous almost-insanity at the moment.

It was a frightfully pleasant situation, believe me.

"There has to be something, _something_ that can be done! Argh!"Rose wailed. I felt especially sorry for her. She seemed to feel, in some convoluted way, that this was her fault. Her red hair was getting frizzier by the minute, and she looked a little deranged.

"Rose. It's going to be fine. Really," said Al, in what would be a soothing tone. Rose just threw him a dark, insulted sort of look, but she stopped her loud fretting.

I was sort of resigned to the fact that I was going to have to watch sixteen years of my life, powerless. I would just pretend it was a very drawn-out, vivid dream. That's what I would do.

I caught James' eye from across the room, and I gasped softly. Instead of in panic, the familiar lines of his face were arranged into an expression identical to mine – composed, acquiescent, and hopeless. The knot in my stomach loosened slightly when I saw this. I felt less alone.

Rose was muttering quietly to herself now. "I mean, there must be some sort of curse or – or hex to get us back to our century. Maybe in _Olde and Forgotten Bewitchments and Charmes_… I should go to the library again…"

"No, wait," said James, unexpectedly. He was looking at Rose, head cocked to one side, a curious expression on his face.

I asked before I could help myself, "What is it, James?"

He looked at me, took a short breath and said, "Isn't there a charm that sort of… shakes an area of the earth for a while, to restore things after a huge accident? Didn't McGonagall mention it in class the other day? Didn't she say that it affects the realms of time as well?"

I felt my breath leave in one shaky moment. I remembered the lesson clearly…

"_But, professor, the ministry can erase as many memories as they want, but that doesn't erase the fact that there's an enormous magical hole in the middle of the city."_

_We are discussing the transfiguration involved in hiding large magical crimes from muggles. We managed to get off topic a few minutes ago, and now the whole class is actually paying attention – some trying to get McGonogall on a tangent, others truly interested._

"_That's a good question, Mr. Fitzgerald. There is a charm the ministry employs in situations such as these to restore the earth to its former normalcy. Very difficult, very powerful, it shifts the earth back to the way it was, so muggles notice no difference. Because of the complexity, it can actually be adapted to fit a number of circumstances – problems with the appearance of a natural formation, mass memory wiping, even issues involving the time/space continuum. It's a rather marvelous invention."_

_I raise my hand, feeling curious. "If it's so effective, then why don't we just use it every time something goes wrong? Wouldn't life be a lot simpler?"_

_A wry smile crosses the Professors face. "Not quite, Miss Evans. The charm requires enough energy to quite disturb the area surrounding the spell's coverage (which can only be a rather small area, incidentally). It can only be done every twenty years or so, and I'm afraid catastrophes happen quite oftener than that." _

_Potter raises his hand. Strange. He never pays attention in Transfiguration, not that I'm keeping track._

"_What's the charm called?"_

"_Aetas res rei renovo."_

I gasped, struck by the implications of this revelation. "Aetas res rei renovo," I repeated softly, looking deeply into James' dark hazel eyes.

It seemed unlikely, after all our failures, but perhaps we'd finally found a solution.

_Didja like it? Well, let me know... in a review! :) _


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